For Father Hugues Berrette, a recent trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, served as a testament to the strength of Catholicism in mission dioceses, where both the laity and clergy go to great lengths to live and celebrate the faith.  

As Father Berrette described, priests in Arkansas drive 100 miles on to celebrate Mass, and when they’re done and leave for the week, lay leaders keep the faith alive.  

“I was very, very, very impressed by the faith of the people there,” Father Berrette, pastoral administrator at Guardian Angel Church in Ocean Parkway, told The Tablet. “I discovered the power of lay leadership. In Little Rock, the Church survives because of committed laymen and women. 

“It’s a model for us on the power of lay leadership.”  

Regarding the priests who travel all that way to celebrate Mass, some caring for three mission churches at a time, he said that it was a very powerful witness that “taught me again the beauty of priestly sacrifice.”  

Father Berrette traveled the Diocese of Little Rock with nine other priests from July 7–9 on a pastor immersion trip hosted by Catholic Extension, a nonprofit organization that supports the Church in poor and remote mission dioceses nationwide. There are 69 mission dioceses and eparchies in the U.S. and its territories, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  

Through its immersion trips, Catholic Extension aims to give pastors a first-hand experience in these areas, including Native American reservations in the West; African American parishes in the Deep South; migrant farm worker camps in Yakima, Washington; communities along the U.S-Mexico border; remote missions in Appalachia; and the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.  

Father Berrette was joined on the trip to Arkansas by Father Charlie Keeney, the former director of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Office of the Propagation of the Faith, who retired in 2022 but has remained active in promoting Catholic Extension activities.  

Father Keeney told The Tablet that they visited three churches in smaller-population areas during the trip. He, too, said he was struck by the faith of the people he met.  

“The few people who are there have a tremendous sense of ownership of their Catholic faith. There are no accidental Catholics in Arkansas. You have to want to be, and once you are, it becomes very important to you,” Father Keeney said, noting that even though the communities they visited were small, poor, and in very rural areas, the people “were extremely committed and had a sense of ownership of the parish and the community.”   

The Diocese of Little Rock, which covers the state of Arkansas, has a small, dispersed Catholic population across a rural region marked by persistent poverty, according to Catholic Extension. The diocese has a Catholic population of 178,892, which is about 5% of the state’s total population, the organization said, adding that there are 130 parishes and missions and 139 priests. 

Reflecting on the trip, Father Berrette kept returning to the commitment to live out the faith he witnessed among the laity and clergy he met.  

“For three days we were immersed in the reality of the Church in Arkansas, a classic mission diocese where the faith is strong; the resources are limited,” Father Berrette said. “The Catholics of Arkansas are a small minority, but they are not a sad minority. “They are joyful. They are welcoming, and they are proud of their Catholic faith.”